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Arcana Chronicles Series Guide

In Kresley Cole’s own words….

ORIGIN OF THE ARCANA

Millennia ago, the gods grew bored. So Isis, the goddess of magic and wisdom, devised entertainment: a contest to the death for select mortals. She invited gods of other realms to each choose a representative from their most prestigious house, a mortal under the age of twenty five who would carry the god’s emblem into battle.

These players would fight inside Tar Ro (ancient Egyptian for royal road), a sacred realm as large as a thousand kingdoms. Isis plagued Tar Ro with disasters to honor various gods and to fuel conflicts between the players.

With each kill, a player would harvest a god’s emblem from an opponent, which would then appear on his or her own hand; only the player who collected all the others’ emblems would leave Tar Ro alive – as an immortal victor.

Naturally, the deities cheated, gifting his or her representative with superhuman abilities. Secret abilities. Thus the players became known as Arcana.

This vicious Tar Ro game proved so popular with the gods that they decided to host it every few centuries in different lands across the mortal plane until the end of time.

Deprived of their lifeblood – worshippers’ prayers – these old deities are thought to have moved on to other worlds, but their legacies live on. On the eve of a new game, each god’s magic seeks out a descendant from his or her House of Arcana.

Players are transformed; a new game is dealt. The earth suffers in their wake.

The object of the game: trump every other card by any means necessary, slaying opponents to collect their emblems, now known as icons. In the end, the winner “holding all the cards” will be made immortal until all the others reincarnate to play again.

THE FLASH

The Sun flame broiled the earth, flash evaporating all bodies of water and turning every living thing that had not taken shelter to ash. This also caused wooden buildings (or any flammable buildings) to catch on fire. It created a disease which zombifies people, making them into creatures called Baggers.

If you are looking for the next Hunger Games or Divergent but even more addicting and action packed, then you have to try the Arcana Chronicles. It has Kresley Cole’s signature writing style, fun characters bursting with personality, and the wild imagination of a world you’ll want to know all the secrets about, but maybe never visit.

This series is such a unique concept and a really entertaining one. It’s packed with betrayals, secrets and lies in a fight for survival and to stop the game. And it also features one of the ultimate love triangles in my opinion! Check it out and you may just find your next book boyfriend (or two)! But fair warning, don’t get too attached to any of these characters. It’s a battle to the death after all.

Tableau: A young man wearing a red robe, holds a wand skyward while pointing to the ground with his free hand. On a table before him lies a pentagram, a chalice, a sword, and a cane. A bed of roses and lilies grow at his feet, vines trailing above. Like Strength, the Magician card have an infinity symbol.

Special Skills: Spells and hexes. One spell enables her to remember past games.

Call: “Terror from the abyss!”

Icon: Trident.

Weapons: Water, trident.

Circe is described as having luminous fawn colored eyes, and ebony skin with long black brained hair.

Tableau: A priestess – with water for hair and tentacles for legs – looms over a sacrificial victim at a bloody altar.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: She has iridescent blue scales on her arms, with a small fin at each elbow.

Before Flash: A grad student from Bermuda, attending the University of Miami. Her focus: Atlantean mythology and the Bermuda triangle. Engaged to a computer programmer and instructor there. Member of campus Wiccans.

Fantasy Cast: Camila Mendes

Evangeline Green, known as Evie, also known as Poison Princess, Lady Lotus, Phyta, the May Queen, The Queen of Thorns, Mistress of Flora. Sieva (to Death) and peekon (to Jack)

Age: 16-18

Powers: Can create, shape, and control plants and trees. Can deliver poisons through her claws and lips, and spores from her hair and hands. Chlorokinetic scrying (can perceive through plants). Regeneration.

Special Skills: Mesmerizing.

Call: “Come, touch … but you’ll pay a price.”

Icon: White rose.

Weapons: Plants, trees, poisonous spores, thorn tornados.

Love Interest(s): Brandon Radcliffe, Jack Deveaux, Aric Dominja

Petite with a slim figure, beautiful with blonde hair and blue eyes

Tableau: A woman sitting upon a throne with her arms open wide, wearing a poppy-red gown and a crown with twelve stars; her hair is strewn with poppies, vines, and strands of red. White roses surround her throne, and the rolling hills behind her are awash in green and red – from both crops and blood.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: Hair turns red, and fingernails morph into thorn claws. Glyphs on her skin glow from green to gold, each one representing a weapon in her arsenal.

Before Flash: A cheerleader at Sterling High in Louisiana. The night before Day 0, her sixteenth birthday arty was broken up by the sheriff’s department.

Fantasy Cast: Teresa Palmer

Richter also known as the Stone Overlord, The Emperor, Jersey Number Four

Tableau: A warrior in a horse-drawn chariot, dressed in a red tunic and a helmet with a red-feather crest. Waterfalls and waves appear in the background.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: When intangible, a faint outline of his body remains.

Before Flash: Newlywed Kenya Special Forces soldier, training an elite anti-poaching unit. Descended from a long line of Maasai warriors.

Fantasy Cast: Robert Ri’chard

Lark Inukai also known as Mistress of Fauna, Fortitude

Age: 16

Powers: Animal manipulation (can control all creatures). Animal scrying (can borrow the senses of animals). Animal generation (her blood affects the physiology of creatures and can make them into her familiars). Enhanced senses, night vision.

Special Skills: Healing and training animals.

Call: “Red of tooth and claw!”

Icon: Paw print.

Weapons: Beastly predators.

Love interest: Finn

Tableau: A delicate girl in a white robe controlling the gaping jaws of a lion. Like the Magician, the Strength card have an infinity symbol.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: Has claws and fangs. Her eyes turn red when she mingles her senses with a creature’s.

Before Flash: High school student and animal trainer, living in the compound of an eccentric billionaire.

Call: “Blood will tell. Blood will run. But the tears of the damned always taste sweet.”

Icon: Navy-blue scales.

Weapons: Razor-sharp claws that tip her wings and a scouring whip.

Tableau: A blindfolded, winged demoness, holding a steel-studded whip in her upraised right hand and weighing scales in her lowered left hand.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: Her eyes are yellow instead of white, with green keyhole pupils. She has long retractable claws and batlike wings. Prior to striking an enemy, her wings will vibrate, the sharp claws tapping each other to make a rattling sound.

Before Flash: Daughter of Egyptian museum curators, in the States for a long-term exhibit.

Fantasy Cast: Tara Emad

Name:

A.k.a: Our Lord Uncanny

Age:

Powers:

Special Skills:

Call: “Never…….

Icon:

Weapons:

Love Interest:

Appearance:

Tableau:

Unique Arcana Characteristics:

Before Flash:

Details to be revealed soon…

Aric Dominija is the Death Arcana known as the Endless Knight. He has been the reigning Arcana Champion for the last three games.

Aric is considered stunningly beautiful, with long white blond hair, amber eyes and tanned skin. He is well over 6 feet tall, with a regal bearing. He has jagged black runes across his chest telling the story of his past with previous Empresses.

Tableau: A Reaper clad in black armor, scythe at the ready, riding a pale horse with evil red eyes. He carries a black flag emblazoned with a white rose.

Before Flash: A mysterious, reclusive billionaire, securing his mountain compound (Lethe Castle) against any foreseeable disaster.

Fantasy Cast: Devin Paisley

Calanthe, also known as Sin, Collectress of Sins, Collectress of Evils

Age: 16

Powers: Sin detection and pathokinesis (emotion manipulation). Her Weight of Sins power can magnify another’s guilt and horror over past deeds. Is immune to the Empress’s poisons. Enhanced senses, healing, throwing, and precise aiming.

Special Skills: Guile, social adaption.

Call: “Crush you with the Weight of Sins.”

Icon: A gold chalice.

Weapons: A pair of sai, handhled martial-arts weapons with three prongs.

Love Interest: Patrick Joules

Tableau: Androgynous robed figure standing on a pedestal, pouring water from one chalice to another; the sun and a bolt of lightning glow in the background.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: When she utilizes her power, a haze erupts around her and ripples of energy seem to flow from her, bombarding her target.

Before Flash: High school student from India, living in the States with her older sister Diya, a chronicler.

Fantasy Cast: Sonakshi Sinha

Ogen, also known as Foul Desecrator, El Diablo, The Bloody Foul One

Powers: Superhuman strength, animal aggression. Can morph his body, first into a colossal ogre, then into a giant. His thickened hide repels acid and poison.

Selena had long silvery-blond hair with dark eyes. She has been described as having a beach-volleyball-player physique.

Tableau: A glowing goddess of the hunt with red-tinged skin, poised in moonlight.

Unique Arcana Characteristics: Skin glows red like a hunter’s moon.

Before Flash: Motocross champion, Olympic archery hopeful, and college student who just moved away from her aunts’ home.

Fantasy Cast: Cara Delevingne

Solomon Heliodoro also known as El Sol, Hail the Glorious, Illuminator

Age: 23

Powers: Solar embodiment (can emit sunlight from his skin and eyes). Solar manipulation (can burn enemies or strike them with madness and attack with solar winds and flares). Command inducement and sense scrying (can control Bagmen and borrow their senses).

Special Skills: Enhanced charisma, showmanship.

Call: “Next o me, everything is shadow.”

Icon: Yellow sun.

Weapons: Bagmen.

Love Interest: Beatrice and Joe.

Solomon has black hair and brown eyes

Tableau: A child wrapped in a red pennant is surrounded by sunflowers. Above, the sun blazes down with a menacing face.

Before Flash: Prophesied to be the reincarnation of the great Arendgast – an errand spirit (more commonly known as an angel). Worshipped by the Sect of Arendgast, a remote, ages-old cult, separated from modern society.

Disclaimer:
Certain information, such a the identity of the Hanged Man card (revealed in book 6) and the kills for each Arcana are omitted from this series guide. The last card information will be added after some time has passed from release to avoid spoiling the book for those currently reading it. The kills standings won’t be added to keep this as a spoiler free guide.

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